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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Sport
Guardian sport

Football quiz: can you identify the team title streak from the runners-up?

Manchester City have become the fourth English team to win a hat-trick of consecutive league titles.
Manchester City have become the fourth English team to win a hat-trick of consecutive league titles. Photograph: Tom Jenkins/The Guardian
  1. Let's start with (hopefully) an easy one. Who beat Manchester United, then Liverpool and Arsenal to the title in successive seasons?

    1. Manchester City (2021-2023)

    2. Chelsea (2005-07)

    3. Wolves (1958-60)

    4. Huddersfield (1924-26)

  2. Next: Ipswich Town, Watford, Southampton.

    1. Huddersfield (1924-26)

    2. Liverpool (1982-84)

    3. Manchester United (1999-2001)

  3. Staying in the First Division: Cardiff, West Brom, Arsenal.

    1. Preston (1889-91)

    2. Aston Villa (1895-97)

    3. Huddersfield (1924-26)

    4. Portsmouth (1948-50)

  4. Over the Channel now. Who kept Nantes, Nice, Bordeaux and Marseille off top spot?

    1. Saint-Étienne (1967-70)

    2. Lyon (2002-05)

    3. Paris Saint-Germain (2013-16)

  5. Over to Germany now: Hertha Berlin, Hamburg, Schalke.

    1. Bayern Munich (1972-74)

    2. Borussia Mönchengladbach (1975-77)

    3. Bayern Munich (1985-87)

    4. Bayern Munich (1999-2001)

  6. From 1948 to 1991, East Germany had a separate top division, the Oberliga. Which team finished above Dynamo Dresden (six times), Lokomotive Leipzig (twice), Carl Zeiss Jena and Vorwärts Frankfurt?

    1. 1.FC Magdeburg

    2. Berliner FC Dynamo

    3. FC Karl-Marx-Stadt

    4. Hansa Rostock

  7. Our next sequence of second-placed sides: Spartak Vladikavkaz, Rotor Volgograd, Dynamo Moscow. Who beat them?

    1. CSKA Moscow (1946-48)

    2. Dynamo Kyiv (1966-68)

    3. Spartak Moscow (1992-94)

    4. Zenit (2020-22)

  8. Serie A next, and the following list: Roma, Roma, Roma, Juventus, Roma.

    1. Bologna (1935-39)

    2. Torino (1945-49)

    3. Milan (1992-96)

    4. Internazionale (2006-10)

  9. Over to Austria: who beat Rapid Vienna, Sturm Graz and Rapid Vienna (again) to the title?

    1. Austria Vienna (1991-93)

    2. Tirol Innsbruck (2000-02)

    3. Red Bull Salzburg (2014-16)

    4. Red Bull Salzburg (2021-23)

  10. A short hop over to Hungary, and this sequence: Vidi, Fehervar, Puskas Akademia, Kisvarda, Kecskemet.

    1. MTK Budapest (1919-23)

    2. Budapest Honved (1949-53)

    3. Ujpest (1969-73)

    4. Ferencvaros (2019-23)

  11. Between 2012 and 2018, which team dominated the Chinese Super League, keeping Beijing Guoan (twice), Jiangsu Suning (twice), Shanghai SIPG (twice) and Shandong Luneng off the top?

    1. Hebei China Fortune

    2. Guangzhou Evergrande

    3. Wuhan Three Towns

    4. Shanghai Port

  12. Finally, good luck with this one ... Cliftonville, Crusaders, Portadown.

    1. Linfield (1954-56)

    2. Linfield (1984-87)

    3. Linfield (2010-12)

    4. Linfield (2020-22)

Solutions

1:A - England's three most successful clubs have all come second to City in the last three seasons, although Liverpool won the title in 2019-20., 2:B - Watford (1982-83) and Southampton (1983-84) achieved their highest-ever league finishes in coming second to the runaway Reds., 3:C - After winning two titles with the Terriers, Herbert Chapman moved to Arsenal – who came second to Cecil Potter's Huddersfield the following season., 4:A - Les Verts won seven of their 10 titles between 1966-67 and 1975-76 – they are still joint-top of the overall title list, although PSG are about to overtake them., 5:B - Gladbach missed out on the 1977-78 title to Cologne on goal difference – despite winning their final game, against Dortmund, 12-0., 6:B - Founded in 1966, BFC won 10 straight titles from 1978-79 to 1987-88 – but missed out on a place in the second tier when the German league was reunified, and are now in the regional fourth tier., 7:C - Spartak won the first three titles in Russia after the Soviet Union disbanded. , 8:D - Roma also finished second three times during Juve's nine-title run in the 2010s; in their history, the Giallorossi have won three titles and been runners-up 14 times., 9:B - Tirol Innsbruck's run of success ended in calamitous fashion when the big-spending club went bankrupt in 2002; Joachim Löw was the coach for their final season., 10:D - The Budapest giants have just won their 34th title, and will look to extend the streak to a club-record six next season., 11:B - Now simply called Guangzhou FC, their motto is 'be the best forever' – and they certainly tried, 12:C - Linfield have won the title in Northern Ireland a world-record 56 times; their most recent run of four league trophies was ended this year by Larne, who won their first-ever title.

Scores

  1. 9 and above.

    Superb effort – time to get a new trophy cabinet

  2. 0 and above.

    Hard luck – no silverware for you this time

  3. 5 and above.

    Well played – worth a trophy if not a dynasty

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